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LONDON — A full moon might be to blame for sleepless nights after all.

Scientists at the University of Basel in Switzerland say they have found the first reliable
evidence that sleep patterns are influenced by lunar changes. The study, published in
Current Biology, shows brain activity related to deep sleep in volunteers dropped by 30
percent around the full moon. The study subjects also took longer to fall asleep and had shorter
nights.

“It could be important,” said Eric Chudler, executive director of the Center for Sensorimotor
Neural Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. The researchers aren’t “saying the
moon controls the person’s sleep pattern; they’re saying the body has an internal clock that’s
similar to the lunar cycle. It’s different to the traditional myth.”

The full moon has been blamed for murder and mayhem since ancient times. The term
lunacy was coined in the 16th century to refer to an intermittent form of insanity
believed to be related to the moon. For generations, people around the world have passed down tales
of werewolves and other moon-related curses. Scientists have tried over the years to discover a
link between the satellite and human behavior. These latest findings may provide a boost to the
field.

“I was very skeptical until we saw the data,” said Christian Cajochen, the lead researcher on
the study and head of the Centre for Chronobiology at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of
Basel. “We have to follow it up.”